Sunday, March 08, 2009

Jorhat (PTI): In yet another incident of man-animal conflict, a leopard was beaten to death by villagers after she injured four persons while being chased by them in upper Assam's Jorhat district on Friday.

The leopard had been creating panic in the tea garden areas and Jorhat Engineering College at Duliagaon after straying out of the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Assistant Forest Conservator Gunin Saikia told PTI.

Seeing the big cat crossing the road near the Engineering College, people tried to chase her away and in self-defence she inflicted minor injuries on four persons, Mr. Saikia said.

Angered by the attack, a large group armed with sharp weapons and sticks beat the leopard killing her on the spot, Divisional Forest Officer, Jorhat, Rajib Kumar Das told PTI.

The Forest Department took away the carcass for post-mortem, Mr. Das said, adding, the leopard had injured two brick-kiln workers about a month ago in the same area.

Earlier on January 3, the carcass of a leopard was recovered from nearby Lokhojan Tea Estate in Golaghat district, adjacent to Jorhat, after it was suspectedly poisoned by people when it strayed out of the Kaziranga National Park.

Two other female leopards, including a pregnant one, which were trapped and captured on January 3 and 10 will be released into the Park soon.